Midwest Real Estate News March 2017 : Page 1

MINNESOTA | MISSOURI | NEBRASKA | OHIO | TENNESSEE | WISCONSIN MARCH 2017 WWW .REJOURNALS.COM VOLUME 30 ISSUE 14 Directories begin on page 36: ARCHITECTS/ DEVELOPERS/ MULTIFAMILY FINANCE THE DAKOTAS | ILLINOIS | INDIANA | IOWA | KANSAS | KENTUCKY | MICHIGAN Construction outlook: More cranes in the sky, but challenges await, too By Dan Rafter, Editor FEATURE: FINANCE A joint venture of CA Ventures and Keith Giles LLC is building 1136 South Wabash, a 320-unit mixed-use development in Chicago’s South Loop. W Leopardo recently completed a 128,000-square-foot phased renovation and expansion of Grubhub’s Chicago headquarters in the Burnham Center at 111 W. Washington St. in Chicago. Finance pros: By Dan Rafter, Editor hen Paul Laird looks at the Midwest markets he serves as vice president and Midwest regional manager for United Construction Company, he sees a busy future. Construction crews are busy across the Midwest today, building spec industrial facilities, downtown apartment towers and new office buildings. And Laird doesn’t expect the pace of new con-struction to slow anytime soon, thanks to a steady national economy and an equally steady demand for new urban apartment buildings and modern warehouses and distribution centers. “Our crystal ball doesn’t go out into 2018, but we don’t see anything right now that should slow the pace of construction activity,” Laird said. “The con-struction industry tends to lag behind the general economy. It stops slower than the rest of the econ-omy. And it usually starts back up slower. There is nothing that would indicate that 2018 would be a down year when it comes to construction.” Multifamily market still booming, overbuilding not yet a concern in Midwest SPEC BUILDING REMAINS STRONG M Construction activity is solid, or at least steady, across the major commercial sectors. But Laird said that the industrial market is especially strong today. Much of the demand for new warehouse and dis-tribution facilities is being driven by e-commerce users, Laird said. FEATURE (continued on page 12) inneapolis’ Dougherty Mortgage has been busy, fielding plenty of financing requests from investors who want to acquire and developers who want to build apartment complexes in the markets this commercial lender serves. Dougherty Mortgage isn’t alone, either. The multifamily market continues to boom across the Midwest, with investors sinking their dol-lars into existing properties and developers rushing to build new apartment towers in urban downtowns. Tim Larkin, senior vice president in the Minneapolis office of Dougherty Mortgage, says that the apartment market continues to keep him and his fellow lenders active. And he doesn’t see any slowdown in multifamily financing requests in the near future. “Rents have been rising and will continue to FEATURE (continued on page 8)